Features

Parents who talk or text on cell phones while driving with their kids in the car are also more likely to engage in other risky driving behaviours, including not wearing a seat belt or driving under the influence of alcohol, a small study suggests. 

More than half of parents in an anonymous survey admitted to talking on the phone while driving with their young kids in the car. Nearly 15 per cent also did not use appropriate child restraints every time they drove their kids, and these parents were more likely to use their phones and take other chances while driving. 

“There are a lot of people on the road who are driving distracted and, usually, they are engaged in more than one dangerous driving practice at the same time,” said Linda Roney of the Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, who was not involved in the study. 

“Unfortunately, a lot of these people are driving children and they are sharing the road with us,” Roney said in an email. 

For the study, Catherine McDonald, a senior fellow at the Centre for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and her colleagues used the online crowdsourcing platform Turk Prime to recruit a sample of 760 adults from 47 US states. 

Sponsored

Survey participants were required to be at least 18 years old, to be parents or routine caregivers of children between the ages of Four and 10 and to have driven the oldest of those children at least six times in the preceding three months. 

McDonald told Reuters Health they selected the Four-to-10-year age group because those children normally ride forward-facing and are thus able to observe their parents’ behaviours. This age group also has inconsistent compliance with child restraint use, she noted. 

Survey participants anonymously answered questions about their behaviours when driving with their kids, such as using a cell phone to talk, read, send text messages and use social media. They also answered questions about how regularly they used seatbelts, regardless of whether the child was in the car, and how often they had driven drunk or “buzzed”. 

Researchers found that 52.2 per cent of parents reported talking on a hands-free phone while driving with a young child in the car and 47 per cent had done so with a hand-held phone. Just over a third of parents reported reading text messages while driving their children, while 26.7 per cent said they had sent text messages. Almost 14 per cent reported using social media while driving with children. 

Looking at whether risky driving behaviours go together, the study team also found that the 14.5 per cent of parents who did not consistently use a child restraint system were twice as likely as the ones who did to talk on their phone while driving, and three times as likely to use social media while in a moving vehicle with kids. 

Having a history of driving under the influence and of not consistently wearing a seat belt while driving was also tied to a higher likelihood of using a cell phone while driving with children. 

McDonald emphasised that even parents who did not engage in more traditional risky behaviours still used their cell phones while driving. But the clustering of risky behaviours “points to an opportunity for health education and health promotion with parents”. 

The study is limited by its reliance on participants to report their own behaviours, and the researchers had no information about whether any of the risky behaviours led to car accidents, the authors acknowledge in The Journal of Paediatrics. 

Roney calls the notion that we can multitask a popular misconception. 

“Neuroscience research confirms that we can’t,” she said. “When we do more than one thing at the same time, we actually shift our attention to one task at a time... The same thing goes for distracted driving — your attention shifts to your cell phone and you are no longer paying attention to the road or hazards ahead of you.” 

Activities that take the eyes off the roadway are particularly problematic, McDonald said. 

“Parents inherently want their children to be safe and optimally protected and may not realise that engaging with their cell phones while driving puts everyone in the vehicle — and on the road — at risk.” 

An uncannily familiar and satisfying combination of classic design and modern muscle, the Range Rover Chieftain is Banbury, UK-based Jensen International Automotive’s (JIA) follow-up to the revived, reinvented and modernised Interceptor R. Following a similar path as their updated and thoroughly more luxurious and powerful version of the classic 1966-76 Jensen Interceptor grand touring coupe, the Chieftain is similar in intent, yet a more complex engineering recipe. Based on a more recent and more globally recognised British design icon in the form of the 1970-96 Range Rover, the Chieftain is intended to garner broader, slightly younger and more international clients and appeal.

Expected to appeal to those with fond recollections and aspirations to own the iconic original Range Rover, the Chieftain was also developed with the broader Middle East market firmly in mind, given the general popularity of large, powerful and luxurious SUVs and the Range Rover’s particular regional resonance. A bespoke and highly personalised build from ground up once commissioned by a client, the Chieftain super-SUV is as exclusive as cars come. It is nevertheless developed as an indulgently comfortable high performance daily drive with robust, reliable and easily serviceable mechanicals, rather than as a delicate and temperamental garage-diva to be squirreled away by owners.

Bespoke built

Familiar yet significantly more potent in both brutally-epic supercharged V8 engine and aesthetic treatment, the Chieftain’s powerplant is sourced from the outgoing Cadillac CTS-V. Its design meanwhile retains the original Range Rover’s clean lines and surfacing, clamshell bonnet, iconic fascia, big glasshouse and all-round utility. 

It, however, sits lower, wider with a more intense and urgent demeanour, featuring more sculpted, angular and upright integrated bumpers and massive blistered wheel-arches. Accommodating a wider track inherited from the Land Rover Discovery chassis it is built on, the Chieftain’s muscular wheel-arches also house vast bespoke retro period-style 20-inch alloy wheels, 275/40R20 tyres and larger, more effective AP Racing brakes.

Under its evocatively reinterpreted skin, the Chieftain is built on a 2004-16 generation Land Rover Discovery chassis, including its light, long-geared steering and independent double wishbone air suspension in place of the classic Range Rover’s ruggedly old-school, but less comfortable live axles. Both repaired and restored as necessary, a classic five-door Range Rover body is then grafted onto the Discovery frame.

Under the bonnet, the Chieftain’s modern General Motors LSA 6.2-litre supercharged V8 replaces the original’s significantly less powerful and Buick-derived historic V8. Also using a GM-sourced 6-speed automatic gearbox and four-wheel-drive transfer case, the Chieftain however loses its Discovery donor’s low ratio gear transfer.

Bellowing brute

As visceral and imposing in sound as sight, the Chieftain stirs to life with a resonant crack of thunder and settles to a bass-laden burble at idle. Comparable in power and performance to Land Rover’s latest brutally quick Range Rover Sport SVR, the 2386kg Chieftain develops 556BHP at 6100rpm and 551lb/ft torque at 3800rpm. And with huge reserves of four-wheel-drive traction and grip for even in wet weather conditions, as driven during a Middle East exclusive test drive on UK roads, the Chieftain blasts through the 0-100km/h sprint in just 4.5-seconds. Capable of well over 250km/h, its gloriously rumbling and growling cruising soundtrack rises to a deep bass mid-range staccato.

With a seemingly bottomless torque reservoir, the Chieftain is languidly effortless and flexible at low-end and mid-range. Viciously quick when prodded more meaningfully, the Chieftain’s responses are immediate and accompanied by intensely bellowing top-end acoustics layered with background supercharger whine, as it speed accumulates with relentless urgency against high wind and driving rain, and despite its blocky 1970s aerodynamics. Confidently able to deploy much of its vast capabilities even on slick roads, the Chieftain’s delivery is that of a sweepingly seamless, consistent and progressive torrent. Gear changes a smooth and quick, yet seemed sensitive to kick-down, but the driven demo was due for further gearbox software fine-tuning.

Supple, smooth 

and settled

Designed with on-road use as its primary focus, the only existing Chieftain at time of test drive uses a four-wheel-drive set-up with open differentials, but features a traction control system to help put power down effectively. And while its enormous torque output somewhat compensates for off-road driving, JIA however can install limited-slip or locking differentials for future builds, if commissioned to do so by a client. The antithesis of most modern super-SUV’s slunk, hunkered down cabin, the Chieftain’s airy interior, high upright driving position, low waistline and big glasshouse instead provides significantly better visibility and confidence for placing when driving on- or off-road.

Despite the visual cues that its aggressive body styling and low profile tyres would suggest, the Chieftain is, however, set up for a high level of ride comfort and is a different more relaxed riding vehicle than firm riding modern high performance SUVs. Smooth and supple over imperfect road textures and settled over crests and on rebound, the Chieftain’s comfort-biased air suspension forgivingly soaks up lumps and bumps. Leaning slightly more through corners, the Chieftain nevertheless well contains body roll and feels predictable, tidy and balanced through corners. Confident and more agile through winding switchbacks, the Chieftain’s old school charm soon wins one over.

Exquisitely evocative

Improving on the original Range Rover’s vague steering, the Chieftain’s Discovery-sourced steering could do with being tauter on-centre, but delivers good road feel, accuracy and weighs nicely through corners.

Reassuringly stable at speed, the Chieftain’s four-wheel drive also ensures excellent road holding. Meanwhile well-refined from vibration and harshness, the Chieftain uses new door seals to reduce noise, but given its vintage body and panels, wind noise is more noticeable than in modern competitors, while its evocatively burbling engine and exhaust notes are more audible inside.

Available in right-hand-drive as pictured or left-hand-drive depending on customer requirement, the Chieftain’s cabin is and exquisitely appointed, comfortable and inviting place. Distinctly retro in ambiance inside, the Chieftain’s cabin is however extensively redesigned, refurbished, upgraded and reupholstered with fine leathers, Alcantara roof-lining and Wilton carpeting.

Spacious and offering excellent visibility, the Chieftain’s Monk Design cabin features improved ergonomics electrically-adjustable seats, new centre console and revised switchgear. Additionally, it features a seamlessly integrated period-style dashboard-mounted binnacle with an embedded Apple CarPlay-enabled Alpine infotainment system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 6.2-litre, supercharged V8-cylinders

Bore & stroke: 103.25mm/92mm

Compression ratio: 9:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, OHV, fuel injection

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, 4WD

Power, PS (BHP) [kW]: 564 (556) [415] @6100rpm

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 551 (747) @3800rpm

0-100km/h: 4.5-seconds

Top speed: over 250km/h

Fuel consumption, highway: 14.1l/100km

Weight: 2386kg

Suspension: Double wishbones, air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated discs

Tyres: 275/45R20

Price, UK: starting from GB£250,000

LONDON — Multidrug-resistant “superbugs” that can cause dangerous infections in hospitals are becoming increasingly resistant to alcohol-based hand sanitisers and disinfectants designed to hold them at bay, scientists said. 

In a study of what the researchers described as a “new wave of superbugs”, the team also found specific genetic changes over 20 years in vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, or VRE — and were able to track and show its growing resistance. 

Their findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. 

VRE bugs can cause urinary tract, wound and bloodstream infections that are notoriously difficult to treat, mainly because they are resistant to several classes of antibiotics. 

In efforts to tackle the rise of hospital superbugs such as VRE and MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, institutions worldwide have adopted stringent hygiene steps — often involving hand rubs and washes that contain alcohol. 

Tim Stinear, a microbiologist at Australia’s Doherty Institute who co-led the study, said that in Australia alone, use of the alcohol-based hand hygiene has increased tenfold over the past 20 years. “So we are using a lot and the environment is changing,” he said. 

Yet, while rates of MRSA and other infections have stabilised due to heightened hygiene, Stinear said, VRE infection rates have not. This prompted his team to investigate the VRE bug for potential resistance to disinfectant alcohols. 

They screened 139 isolated bacterial samples collected between 1997 and 2015 from two hospitals in Melbourne and studied how well each one survived when exposed to diluted isopropyl alcohol. 

They found that samples collected after 2009 were on average more resistant to the alcohol compared with bacteria taken from before 2004. 

The scientists then spread the bacteria onto the floors of mouse cages and found that the alcohol-resistant samples were more likely to get into, and grow in the guts of the mice after the cages were cleaned with isopropyl alcohol wipes. 

Paul Johnson, a professor of infectious diseases at Austin Health in Australia who also co-led the study, said the findings should not prompt any dramatic change in the use of alcohol-based disinfectants. 

Sophia, or the Beginning of All Tales
Rafik Schami
Translated from German by Monique Arav and John Hannon
US: Interlink Books, 2018
Pp. 444

Homesickness catalyses the plot in Rafik Schami’s latest novel, “Sophie”. Though living mostly happily in Italy for many years, and having a wife, son and successful business there, Salman Baladi longs for his native Damascus. “It wasn’t until much later that he would learn that the Damascus he dreamt of in his loneliness existed only in his imagination.” (p. 122) 

Although the focus is on Damascus, the novel also moves to Homs, Lebanon, Germany and Italy. The narrative spans the timeframe from the 1920s to 2010, alluding to many historical events of the last century and ending as the Arab uprisings begin to break out, accentuating the novel’s themes of honour, dignity, freedom and betrayal. 

Returning home after forty years is complicated for Salman because he had left Syria illegally after the defeat of the underground opposition group of which he was a member. But when a general amnesty is declared in 2010, he is determined to go and visit his parents. They have a relative high-up in the secret service from whom they get assurances that Salman will not be harassed or arrested. Reassured, he travels to Damascus, but promises are not always kept, and he learns that money and fear count more than honour, kinship or friendship. Though many have good intentions, they nonetheless risk getting caught up in or victimised by webs of deceit and corruption. The latter part of the book is something of a thriller: Salman does not know whom he can trust, or if he will be able to return to his wife, Stella, and son Paolo in Rome. 

Like Salman, Schami is a Syrian in exile; through Salman’s eyes, he highlights what is best in Syrian society — and by implication Arab society — as well as what is worst. Parts of the book are like an ode to Damascus, with charming descriptions of people, places and everyday life, particularly in the Old City. But it is also an indictment of what can make life in Syria difficult and sometimes ugly, whether state repression, with its extensive prison and torture network, or the public’s forced complicity. Schami is adept at integrating political and social critique into the narrative without disrupting its literary flow. Sometimes the characters speak for him; at other times, he uses subtle irony to reveal abuses of power, hypocrisy and the perils of the clan system. 

Karim, a friend of Salman’s mother, Sofie, in their youth, is almost destroyed by the clan system; he is expected to kill his sister to restore his family’s “honour” after she marries a Christian. “The whole thing was based on members blindly following their chief — in this case his father — oblivious to the fact that he was leading them to ruin with a pack of lies”. (p. 159)

In the same vein, Salman gets a lecture from his Aunt Amalia, who has lived in Beirut since being disowned by her family: “No change will ever come to Arab countries until the very structure of the clan that enslaves us, body and soul, has been destroyed.” (p. 44) 

Schami spins his story around a set of opposites: exile vs belonging, love vs hate, peacefulness vs. violence and tolerance vs. prejudice. It is not a tight-knit plot; on the contrary, there are stories within stories and many digressions. Schami is known as a storyteller in the Arabic tradition and for having integrated that style into European literature. His “digressions” deepen the themes of the novel, particularly love, which is portrayed in all its types and degrees. 

Such is the story of Aida and Karim, who fall in love as seniors, she from a Christian family and he from a Muslim one. The distinctive thing about their love is not just that it crosses sectarian boundaries but that it inspires them to pursue thwarted childhood dreams. Karim is teaching Aida to ride a bicycle — something she was forbidden to do as a child, while Aida is teaching Karim to play the oud, which along with all music was banned by his father. Aida and Karim become central to the plot because they help Salman when no one else can or will. 

Salman’s and Stella’s marriage shows that different backgrounds can enrich a relationship, while Aida’s and Karim’s love shows that open-mindedness does not have to come from abroad but can happen wherever people are ready for harmony that thrives on difference not sameness. “Only a vivid combination of different — even opposing — colours and tones, only a lively coming together of people of different temperaments and opinions, could give rise to a living harmony. It was a balance of opposites that could only occur among people through respect and love, but above all through reason. Once achieved, such a balance outlasted by far any coercive control.” (p. 289)

Sally Bland

While there is so much discussion among parents about which schools in Jordan to send their children to and how students should be taught, Family Counsellor and Educator Khalil Zeud empathises the role of parental involvement. He says parents having a more powerful influence on students’ academic performance than the school the students attend. 

So what is this involvement? Buying expensive educational toys or digital devices for your child? Rushing from school to extracurricular activities? Supervising homework? Zeud says “no”. What parents need to do with their children is much simpler, he says: communicate.

Parents become so anxious to raise a “successful” child, he says, that they overlook the importance of spending time interacting personally with their child. This is where Zeud stresses the role of fathers in parenting: Too many fathers are absent in their children’s lives.

They see themselves as the financial providers for the family and that parenting rests exclusively on mothers. “He needs you,” Zeud told fathers at Ask Our Experts II* workshop and makes the case that quality time with fathers is as invaluable to a child’s physical, emotional and intellectual growth as time with mothers — and both parents are needed.

This is why Zeud is disillusioned by the rising rates of divorce and domestic abuse as both have long been linked to behaviour problems, anxiety and depression in children. But even among secure families, children can suffer if parents are both working and not making a concerted effort to spend time with their children. Zeud was blunt with fathers and mothers in his session: “If you don’t have time for your kids, don’t have them.”

He also stresses being present in those moments with children, without distractions — running off your to-do-list or fiddling with your smart phone. Eye contact when talking to your child is very important, he says. Talking clearly, simply and asking your child to repeat what you have said to make sure they understand, is important too.

Zeud’s takeaway message for parents: Raising a child is a challenging task and all parents know that. There is no manual that comes with birth, so naturally, parents need to seek help. But Zeud warns against the social trend of turning to laypeople whose advice is subjective and often harmful to families. Families are struggling, many are broken, he notes. It is a good thing that there are experts in Jordan who can help — take advantage of this,” he concludes.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

For middle-aged women who worry about adding on kilogrmmes when they quit smoking, a large study suggests that adding even a modest amount of weekly exercise after quitting can minimize weight gain. 

Nearly 7 of 10 US adult cigarette smokers say they want to quit, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The fear of gaining weight discourages many of them. 

“We found even a little bit of physical activity minimised weight gain after women stopped smoking,” study leader Juhua Luo of the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington told Reuters Health by phone. 

Even walking for a weekly total of about 90 minutes at five kilometres per hour was enough to minimise weight gain after smoking cessation, Juhua said. The best results were seen when women engaged in 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week. 

Surprisingly, “women who had low physical activity and then transitioned to increased physical activity after they quit smoking had the same weight benefit as women who were physically active before and after they quit smoking”, she said. 

For three years, the study team tracked 4,717 smokers, ages 50 to 70, who were participating in the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study. The 2,282 women who quit smoking gained an overall average of 3.5 kilogrammes. 

The researchers gauged weekly physical activity levels by the type of activity, how intense or strenuous it was, and how long and how frequently a woman exercised to derive a value in so-called metabolic equivalents of task (MET). For example, one hour of moderate-intensity activities such as biking, easy swimming, folk dancing or using an exercise machine was valued at five METs. High-intensity exercise like aerobics was seven METs and low-intensity activity such as bowling, golf or walking at average speed counted as three METs. 

Quitters who increased their levels of physical activity by 15 MET-hours per week or more, about the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense exercise, gained an average of 2.55kg while those who did no exercise or decreased their activity gained an average 3.88kg. 

Women with a high level of physical activity at the beginning and the end of the study also had low weight gain after quitting smoking, averaging an increase of 2.63kg. 

Increasing physical activity had a stronger beneficial association for women who were obese compared with normal weight women, the researchers found. The association between physical activity and weight gain also appeared slightly stronger for younger women, the study team reports in the journal Menopause. 

“My hope is that women believe this study and it will convince them that stopping smoking doesn’t have to lead to weight gain,” said Dr JoAnn Pinkerton of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, who is also executive director of the North American Menopause Society. 

“Hopefully they will start an exercise programme and watch their diet when they stop smoking,” Pinkerton, who was not involved in the study, said in a phone interview. 

“There’s no clear gender difference in gaining weight after smoking cessation. I wish there had been men in the study to make it more comprehensive. Weight gain is equally important to men,” noted Dr Qi Sun of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who was not involved in the study. 

Although the study excluded women over 70, Pinkerton added, “stopping smoking is beneficial to women at any age”. 

Office workers who knew that standing during the day could keep them healthier still felt awkward when they stood during meetings while their colleagues were seated, a UK study found. 

While other studies have explored whether workers consider the idea of standing in meetings acceptable, the new research tried to understand the experience of workers who actually did it, said co-author Benjamin Gardner of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. 

A lack of organisational, environmental and social support for standing — including adjustable sit-stand workstations, standing-only meeting rooms and high stools and desks — can make it feel awkward for workers to put the standing ideal into practice, he noted. 

“Although many organisations are supportive of the message to ‘sit less and move more’, this physical set-up encourages sitting and implicitly portrays it as normative — and standing as a departure from the norm,” Gardner said in an e-mail. “Our study is important because it shows how people feel when they break the sitting norm.” 

For the study, the researchers recruited 25 desk-based employees from three different UK universities between January and April of 2016. Each participant identified three upcoming workplace meetings of different sizes in which they would stand whenever they wanted and for as long as they wanted. A researcher observed these meetings and interviewed participants afterward about their experiences. Each participant received a voucher for £50 (about $66). 

In the interviews, participants reported feeling “awkward”, “disconcerted” or “stupid” when they were standing while others were sitting. They also worried that they would be viewed as “attention seekers” or that they were trying to take control away from the meeting hosts. For this reason, many participants ended up standing at the edge of the room, even though that sometimes left them feeling less involved in the meeting. 

For those who were hosting or presenting at a meeting, however, standing sometimes boosted their confidence, the study team reports in PLOS One. 

Some of these results, such as employees finding it “culturally unacceptable” to stand during meetings, are not surprising, said Gemma Ryde, a physical activity and health researcher at the University of Stirling in Scotland who was not involved in the study. But the research also highlighted unexpected findings, such as how standing might impact power dynamics during meetings and how it can affect employees’ attention and engagement, she said in an e-mail. 

Standing during the workday is viewed as a potential way to reduce the amount of time that people spend sitting, Gardner said. Sitting too long has been linked with various adverse health outcomes, including obesity, heart disease, cancer and poor mental health, he said. 

Office workers are at particular risk, he said, because they spend around two-thirds of the work day sitting. 

There are those who do not hesitate a second and embrace a technological innovation as soon as it is available — come what may. They boldly go for it, with the idea that you simply cannot go wrong if you swim with the powerful tide of technology. This way they are certain to stay ahead of the pack.

And then there are those who take a careful approach to anything new in the high-tech digital world. They prefer to wait and let others take the risk, pay the price of experimenting. They like to see how the market reacts to the innovation and how things develop with time. It is not just a matter of not spending money on high-tech on useless hightech, but more a question of not wasting time and effort on elements that may not prove so successful or that may not make it through the years.

Who is right and who is wrong?

There are countless, huge successful stories in Information Technology (IT). Some of them have changed our life for good and in a radical, dramatic way. At the same time, there are also several stories of failures (or semi-failures to be honest), of innovations that were short-lived. Of course the first count is infinitely higher than the second.

From software operating systems like Windows 8 that was quickly replaced by Microsoft with Windows 10 because of its shortcomings and not-so-good new ways, to Napster Internet client, the Palm Pilot of the mid-1990s, HD DVD media, and Nokia’s Symbian operating system for the early smartphones, the history of digital technology is full of ideas that did not last long. Those who blindly went for them wasted time and energy.

Last year Time Magazine published a story about these “non-successes” that it called “The 20 Most Successful Technology Failures of All Time”, and fool.com wrote another similar story titled “The 10 Biggest Tech Product Failures of the Last Decade”.

Against these rather sad stories about disappointment, one can always and rightly wield Windows 10, Dropbox, SSD drives, USB-C, fibre optic Internet, the latest high-end models of smartphones by Samsung and Apple, online banking, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, WhatsApp, touch screens, and so forth.

The fact is it is impossible to foretell how and in which direction an IT innovation will develop, what kind and what level of popularity it will reach, and if it is here to last. Even IT gurus, even seasoned industry analysts cannot.

One way to go is to trust global numbers &general statistics. Given the high number of successful innovations and the relatively low number of high-tech failures, chances are that an innovation will be a success story rather than a failure. On the other hand a moderate, balanced approach seems to be what makes sense most.

Another way is to evaluate the objective usefulness of a new product, what it could bring you, personally and in a practical manner, if it ever proves to be great and here to stay. If you estimate that the innovation is important to you, then the risk is worth taking. Otherwise you may as well wait till the world has experimented with it before you take any decision regarding its usage.

In the end you only can tell if you were right or wrong after at least a couple of years of using a new IT product. Unless of course it happens to disappear earlier than that.

ORLANDO, Florida — Dr Kenneth Alexander was driving home one day last year when he thought of the idea: What if the Zika virus could be used to kill a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma?

The Zika outbreak was in its third year and scientists had learned that the virus damages the nervous systems of unborn babies by destroying the developing nerve cells.

Those developing nerve cells also make up neuroblastomas.

So, Alexander, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Nemours Children’s Hospital, started brainstorming with a surgeon colleague and brought on board Dr Griffith Parks, a University of Central Florida scientist who has been studying Zika.

After nearly year of research, the team published the preliminary results of their first study, showing that neuroblastoma cells that were exposed to the Zika virus in the laboratory died 10 days after being infected, making the virus a potential treatment for the cancer.

The team’s findings have been published in PLOS One.

“This is like all good ideas. It’s early and there may be a fly in the ointment,” Alexander said in an interview on Wednesday. “But at this point things are looking promising. The path ahead is there and we hope to get lots of other people interested in this research.”

Neuroblastoma is the cancer of nerve cells that reside outside of the brain. It is the second most common types of childhood cancer and has a disproportionately high mortality rate compared to other childhood cancers. It mostly affects infants and children under age 5.

Treatment usually involves surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, or a combination in high-risk cases. In some cases, none of the treatments work.

“There’s a lot of research on neuroblastoma, but we wanted to take a different approach [to finding a treatment],” said study co-author Dr Tamarah Westmoreland, a pediatric general and thoracic surgeon at Nemours. “I think Zika is holding great promise. In looking at these results, we think it can be used [along with] current therapies. However, we’re very early in this research.”

The Orlando team is not the first to look at cancer-killing potential of Zika.

Several groups, including one in the US and one in Brazil, have shown in preliminary studies that Zika infection killed glioblastoma cells in the adult brain, potentially opening new doors for treating this aggressive and common type of brain cancer.

Another Brazilian group reported in June that a Zika virus strain killed aggressive cancerous tumours of the central nervous system.

Alexander said what’s unique about his team’s research is identification of a surface protein called CD24.

The protein makes cancer cells susceptible to being killed by the Zika virus. Cancer cells that did not have the CD24 protein did not respond to Zika, Alexander’s team found in their laboratory research.

“So with these findings, we can ask what other cancers express CD24,” said Alexander. “Now we’re beginning to look at other cancer cells that express CD24 to see if we can kill them as well.”

Scientists do not fully know how the virus enters and destroys the cells. There may be proteins in addition to CD24 that make a cell susceptible to Zika.

“But at least we’ve gotten part of the story,” said Alexander.

This is not the first time a virus has been used to treat cancer, the history of which dates back to the 1940s. More recently, a modified form of herpes virus has been used to treat melanoma.

Alexander said that, based on his team’s preliminary findings, the Zika virus will not have to be modified from its natural form, because fully grown nerve cells are immune to the virus.

“We’ve got this fortuitous situation, where the virus can make a subset of people really sick. But for the majority of us, it’s a non-serious infection,” he said.

Most children and adults who are infected with the virus do not develop any symptoms or have a mild cold-like reaction.

Alexander said the potential therapy could be an injection, much like how mosquitoes infect humans. Or an injection to the site of an excised tumour to prevent the return of the cancer.

The team is now taking the research out of Petri dishes and into rodents.

Alexander and Parks, interim associate dean of research and director of Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, are also planning to study how the CD24 interacts with the Zika virus.